...but it really wasn't. Stopped into a gun shop yesterday that I had never been too and there were lot's of goodies on the wall. I spotted an SKS at the very end of the rack behind the counter that at a glance I was sure was an SKS 45 so I asked to see it. "Sure" the fella said. As he reached for it he said " it's a Noreenko" (and actually it was spelled Norinko on the tag). I looked it over and sure enough there was the Jianshe Arsenal mark on the left side of the receiver...and a latin letter with a four digit number to the left of that...and on the bolt carrier...and the bolt...and the magazine...and the trigger group...and the stock.

What it didn't have was an import stamp. Not Norinco. Not Century. Not Polytech. Not NO BO DY. Not even a hint that such a thing had ever existed (because it never did). I asked where it came from and the answer I got was that a guy had it in his gun safe and decided to get rid of it. From the way he said it I've no doubt it was a local who is known to them. Beyond that he had no knowledge of it's origins.

Yeah, I brought it home.

When I got it home last night I broke it completely down. No hidden import marks beneath the wood. Also no serial electro-penciled on the underside of the gas tube or on the gas piston. The serial on the bolt is also just stamped. I found no electro-peciling anywhere. I took it outside today and took a few pictures so I figured I get peoples thoughts. I know what I suspect but I've no proof to back up my suspicions because I'm thinking it had to be a GI bring back.

Have any of you ever run across an SKS without an import stamp?

The pictures below are just for a very general overview. If you want to see something specific then let me know and I'll try to accommodate you.

what that is, is a SINO-SOVIET SKS. 1) it has the Cyrillic battle sight 2) and this is the biggie - the barrel is screwed into the receiver, and not pinned like the typical Chinese made SKSs 3) it has a blade bayonet 4) the stock is not the typical catalpa soft wood, it's a hard wood stock

although you didn't take a picture, the trigger group should be milled and not stamped

yep, if the price is right, get it.

as for it being a "bring back"? without any documentation to verify that, it's just a very nice early SKS is how I look at it.

what that is, is a SINO-SOVIET SKS. 1) it has the Cyrillic battle sight 2) and this is the biggie - the barrel is screwed into the receiver, and not pinned like the typical Chinese made SKSs 3) it has a blade bayonet 4) the stock is not the typical catalpa soft wood, it's a hard wood stock

although you didn't take a picture, the trigger group should be milled and not stamped

yep, if the price is right, get it.

as for it being a "bring back"? without any documentation to verify that, it's just a very nice early SKS is how I look at it.

I did take a picture, I just didn't include it. I agree with you on the documentation as well. I suspect that it is a bring back for the simple reason it has no import stamp but that's all it is, a suspicion. I can't prove it nor would I spout off claiming such to be fact.

I have three other SKS's in my collection. The first one I bought is a Chinese imported by Poly Atlanta Ga. that I got around 1992 and has the "Area 51" arsenal mark. The second is another Chinese Arsenal /26\ (CSI Ontario Ca,) made around 1965/66. The third is a rebuilt Tula SKS 45 (CDI Swanton Vt.). Mostly early bits in it but it has the late, unmarked dust cover (drat).

When I saw this one way at the end of the rack behind the counter I just KNEW it was another SKS 45. When he told me it was a Norinco I was like, "seriously"?! I knew if that was really the case then it HAD to be a Sino-Soviet. I looked it all over including stripping it right there on the counter and could find no fault with it. The fact that all the numbers matched and there was no evidence of forced matching was icing on the cake. Mechanically it is excellent and the rifling is very sharp. Outwardly it has a generally worn appearance and the butt plate is worn completely through in two places.

I do NOT consider those to be negatives. It simply shows the rifles character.

The only faults I found were very minor. No sling, no cleaning kit in the butt and the bayonet was mounted upside down (first thing I fixed as soon as I got home).

I was 90% sure when I first spied it sitting on the wall that it was going to come home with me. Once I held it and looked it over you couldn't have pried it out of my hands with dynamite.

One thing I don't do is stop researching. I'll ask the same question forty different ways and see if I can get a different answer and I just did. I did not realize that on some of the very early SKS imports they hid the import stamp on the underside of the barrel behind the cleaning rod and not sharing what I found would be dishonest in the extreme.

I looked at mine and couldn't see a mark...but it's kinda dark in here. It is 12:30 in the morning after all. So I got a bright light. It's not deeply struck and was still a bit difficult to read but it was there. CAI St. A. Vt.

I'm extremely happy that I found that because now there is no question as to what it is or where it came from. It is a very early Chinese SKS that saw quite a bit of service with the Peoples Liberation Army of China before being sold as surplus to Century Arms of St. Albans Vermont.

I was pretty stoked about this rifle before and now I'm even more stoked because I don't have any lingering question of origin floating around in my somewhat defective head.

I guess in the end he was right after all, it really WAS a Noreenko.

Now if I could only figure out the story that Arisaka is trying to tell me...but that's for another day on another section of this board

Nice score. It's likely one of the Sinobanians that came ashore a few years back. I've got a few and that's where the stamps are located too, with "A, F, & H" letter prefixes from arsenal /26\.
Back to your original inquiry, it's not unusual to run across SKSs with no importer stamp. Not common but not rare either. I have 3, of which one is an undocumented bring back, the other 2, who knows. PAX.

If that old carbine could talk, one of it's tales would be that it isn't a "Norinco", some folks erroneously label all SKS carbines with that name. They are not Norincos unless stamped as such. Yours is an old Military rifle that came into being long before Norinco started building those rascals! Since 1991 I have had five of them, they are a joy to shoot.

"If the general government should persist in the measures now threatened, there must be war."
General Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson